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An Urartian Lead Figurine from Toprak Kale1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

T. C. Mitchell
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Extract

Dr. Richard Barnett has had a long-standing interest in Urartu, manifested most recently in his chapter in the new Cambridge Ancient History, and early represented by his article on “The Excavations of the British Museum at Toprak Kale near Van” over thirty years before, in 1950. Among the finds in the important Toprak Kale collection in the British Museum were parts of what Dr. Barnett described as a “bewigged garment of lead”, and this piece (BM. 123870) has become familiar from his illustration (Pl. XXXVa).

It was found during the excavations conducted on behalf of the British Museum at Toprak Kale in 1880 by Captain E. Clayton and Dr. G. C. Raynolds, who undertook the work at the request of Hormuzd Rassam, in whose name Sir Henry Layard had obtained an excavation permit. Clayton and Raynolds excavated two main areas on Toprak Kale, one representing the Temple of Haldi, and the other, some fifty feet to the south, where a “pavement” was uncovered and a number of ivory objects and fragments of ivory and bronze were found, in Clayton's words, “in this excavation near the level of the pavement …” Though he makes no mention of lead, the lead fragments under discussion were associated with the ivory, and were presumably mistaken by him for fragments of bronze. This group is probably to be dated in the later part of the ninth, or the eight century B.C.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 33 , December 1983 , pp. 157 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1983

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References

2 Cambridge Ancient History III. 1 (2nd ed.; Cambridge, 1982), pp. 314–71Google Scholar.

3 Iraq 12 (1950), pp. 1–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; followed by “Addenda”, Iraq 16 (1954), pp. 3–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and “More Addenda from Toprak Kale”, AS 22 (1972), pp. 163–78Google Scholar.

4 Iraq 12 (1950), p. 16Google Scholar.

5 Iraq 12 (1950)Google Scholar, pl. XIII.3, subsequently reproduced in Barnett, R. D., A Catalogue of the Nimrud Ivories (London, 1957)Google Scholar, pl. LXXX no. W8; and by R. M. Boehmer (see n. 27 below), fig. 22 (p. 162).

6 Barnett, Iraq 12 (1950), pp. 8–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rassam, , Assur and the Land of Nimrod (New York, 1897), pp. 377–8Google Scholar.

7 Letter from Clayton to Layard, quoted in full in Barnett, Iraq 12 (1950), pp. 9–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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10 Information supplied by Miss Enderly.

11 Piotrovskii, B. B., Karmir Blur (Leningrad, 1969), pls. 29–35Google Scholar.

12 I owe both these observations to Miss Enderly.

13 This relies heavily on the observations and conclusions of Miss Enderly, whose own account appears as Appendix A.

14 “Burnett, , Nimrud Ivories, p. 229Google Scholar, pl. CXXIX, no. W.6a.

15 Barnett, , NI, p. 228Google Scholar, pl. CXXVIII, nos. W.2a–b.

16 This analysis was carried out by Mr. M. R. Cowell of the British Museum Research Laboratory.

17 Meyer, G. R., “Zur Bronzestatuett VA.774 aus Toprak-Kale” Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Forschungen und Berichte 8 (1967), pp. 7–11, pls. 1–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also, conveniently, Meyer, , Altorientalische Denkmäler im Vorderasiatischen Museum zu Berlin (Leipzig, 1965), pl. 131, pp. 27, 41Google Scholar; Barnett, R. D.Iraq 12 (1950), pl. XX, p. 20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; van Loon, M. N., Urartian Art (Istanbul, 1966), pl. XVI, p. 93Google Scholar; Hrouda, B., Vorderasien I (Munich, 1971), pl. 92, p. 264Google Scholar.

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19 This photograph shows the lead figure beside a plaster replica of the bronze one, by kind permission of Dr. L. Jakob Rost.

20 E.g., conveniently, Piotrovskii, , Urartu (1967)Google Scholar, pls. II, IV, 2–6, 8, figs. 9, 12, 14, 15, 17.

21 Piotrovskii, Karmir Blur, pls. 27, 28; Urartu (1967), pl. 15.

22 Piotrovskii, Karmir Blur, pls. 34, 35.

23 Burney, C. A. and Lawson, G. R. J., AS VIII (1958), 213Google Scholar fig. 2; Piotrovskii, , Urartu (1967), fig. 44 (p. 65)Google Scholar.

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25 Botta, P. E. and Flandin, E., Monument de Ninive II (Paris, 1849)Google Scholar, particularly pls. 101, 105; also (in less detail) 90, 91, 95, 99.

26 From Bittel, K., Die Hethiter (Munich, 1976), fig. 328 (p. 297)Google Scholar.

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29 Rudenko, , Frozen Tombs, pl. 177A = fig. 140 (p. 298)Google Scholar.

30 Compare Botta, and Flandin, , Ninive, II, pl. 105,Google Scholar where a figure wears an undergarment decorated with squares and an outer tunic decorated with rosettes.

31 66 (height of man in inches) × 8 (square on figurine in cm.)÷ 24·3 (height of figurine in cm.) = 2·11.

32 66 × 1·5 ÷ 24·3 = 4·01.

33 From Calmeyer, P. in Kellner, H.-J., Urartu. Ein wiederentdeckter Rivale Assyriens (Munich, 1976), Fig. 43 (p. 50)Google Scholar.

34 See also Piotrovskii, Urartu (1967)Google Scholar, pls. 7, 8, figs. 17, 18, 33, 34.

35 Oppenheim, A. L. “The Golden Garments of the Gods” JNES 8 (1949), pp. 172–93Google Scholar. I am indebted to Dr. M. N. van Loon for the suggestion that these might represent gold plaques.

36 Barnett, CAH III.1, p. 368Google Scholar.